


Once Upon a Rose...

by SmallSteps



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Author, F/F, Fate, Friends to Lovers, Magic, Red Beauty - Freeform, RedBeauty, Romance, Storybrooke, curse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:08:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29183046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmallSteps/pseuds/SmallSteps
Summary: Once upon a new curse.Each character is now cursed to know nothing of  their story and forced to live it the way the Author wants it to be. Everyone knows about the other's fate/story but unless they're part of the story they can't interfere.Belle just received a rose. What is she supposed to do with it?
Relationships: Belle/Red Riding Hood | Ruby
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't post regularly.  
> That said, I'm working on it. I can't promise a chapter every two weeks but one can try, right? 
> 
> My laziness and schedule: I'm about to end this girl's not even started career.

“Ok, spill. What's keeping you up?” Ruby asked, sliding across the couch

She hadn't seen Belle in three weeks, usually she knew better than to force her friend to talk but seeing the bags under her eyes, she knew she had to ask, at least to check/know if she was okay. 

...So far Belle had been unresponsive and kept on grumbling against the diner's table.

What's keeping her up? 

Everything. 

The rose, the curse, the Author. Everything.

David and Emma had brought her a flower from their last encounter with magic, she was confused at first but she soon learned that the Charming had given it to her because her story was somehow related to her and by giving it to her, she would know what to do with it. 

Except that she didn't.

She had no idea what to do with it. Water it? Cut it? Burn it? She didn't even know what was the rose's part in her story, how was she supposed to know what to do with it?!

She didn't even know what her story was about! 

All thanks to the Author who thought it was a great idea to curse his characters to be clueless of their fate and story so that he could write all kinds of stories for them without worrying that they wouldn't follow his writing.

This way they'd follow through, no matter the outcome.

If it couldn't get worse, the other characters which weren't part of the story he was writing were all sidelined and forced to watch the story happen in front of them without being able to do anything about it. 

They were only extras waiting for their story to happen while their friends were acting like puppets on the strings of the author's pen.

Fantastic, right? 

Belle sighed. She wasn't against some suspense, far from it she  **_loved_ ** it on paper. Not in real life.

Not when it was her life. 

She groaned. 

She had tried to find a way to get answers, hints, anything. 

In three weeks of moving Storybrooke to the ground, reading every book ever written, even in Gold's personal library she hadn't found anything. 

All she had gained was a library messier than ever and a lifetime of work. Books were everywhere but the shelves, on the desk, on the chairs, under the floorboard, open, closed, mid-closed, she was pretty sure that some pages had even been folded…

She groaned again.

She had nothing. Nada.

It was as if the rose had never existed. 

If only the curse had never existed…

Ruby cocked an eyebrow. She knew that already, still she didn't say anything it seemed like she needed to get it out. Ruby could understand, really, feeling trapped by your own story sucked. Not knowing the truth too, she knew that better than anyone, after all, her people had tried to protect her by not mentioning her condition.

...It only resulted in bloodshed and the death of her boyfriend—not the best way to learn about your condition. If Ruby had learned to tame the wolf, she couldn't help the nightmares and the fear she felt whenever the moon is high in the sky or the full moon is coming.

If anything, Ruby could understand why her friend was frustrated, was scared of her own story, Belle raised from the table, leaning into the hug that Ruby was offering her...and never came. 

“B...Belle? Is...Is it supposed to glow?”

Belle blinked, Ruby’s eyes were glued on something in her bag. 

She had been talking about it for the past fifteen minutes but she had completely forgotten that she had brought it. She didn’t know why, she didn’t think she could give anyone a rational reason for it, she just felt...weird, as if letting it take the sunlight in her library was dangerous. For her...and others. 

Which was weird by the way. A flower needs sun to grow and water too, though this flower seemed to be perfectly fine without it. 

Still, it was just a flower. 

A flower who glowed too apparently. 

Ruby kept on staring at the flower in her bag, her pupils dilating showing that the wolf was just as intrigued and confused as she was. Belle bit , there must have been a rational reason for it? As rational as a thing could be in a world of dwarves, cursed princes, talking crickets and glass slippers...

The french girl took the flower out of her bag. Slowly. Carefully. As she did so, the rose suddenly glowed harder and harder. Belle gulped. She brought it closer to her chest, analyzing it silently. It glowed again. 

“Be...Belle? Is everything okay?” 

Ruby had seen a lot of things in her life, weird,surprising, amazing, strange, terrifying but a glowing rose? Nope. Never in her double life. It didn’t help that she felt strangely attracted to this flower, the same way she felt...No. It couldn’t be. 

Scared of it? 

The wolf in her bumped against her walls, trying to shift her right here, right now. Fighting a shift during a full moon was already hard as it is but fighting the wolf itself, even harder. Ruby couldn’t understand why it seemed so wary of a flower, why the wolf wanted to come out and tear it apart. There was absolutely nothing to worry about, yet, Belle’s silence wasn’t helping her rising pulse or the wolf for the matter. 

Belle on the other hand was more than curious, she needed to test a theory. She brought the rose closer to her chest, as expected it glowed, then to Ruby who nearly threw it away in surprise. Thankfully, Belle was quick enough and put it away before trying again. Slowly this time. Again, it glowed for her. 

She brought it closer to Ruby, carefully who backed away nervously. Belle noticed it and stopped mid-track only a couple of centimeters away from her friend. 

The glowing immediately stopped. 

So, she was right. 

...Only to be replaced by an even more blinding light. 

Her eyes widened. Belle raised her eyes to look into her friend’s ones before running away, the rose on her arm. This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be...Right? 


	2. Chapter 2

That wasn’t Belle’s greatest moment, she was still concealed under all her blankets, gripping them tightly. She hadn’t left the library since the rose’s incident, she couldn’t bring herself to go back to her apartment, not when she knew she would have to face…

She shook her head. 

No.

She didn’t think about it, she had managed to ignore the thoughts for days now, she could still do it. She had received countless messages from the Charmings, even Regina and impromptu surprises from an excited Gold and finally calls from Henry reassuring her that everything would be fine, she would be fine. She just needed to trust the flow of her story. To trust the Author. 

...Right. 

We were talking about the Author, not some kind of carebear...Belle knew better than to trust him, after all she had been sold out by her own father in exchange of money, got locked into a tower for twenty-eight years before getting kidnapped once free...She shook her head again, she was making the right choice, she definitely knew better than to trust him. Belle enjoyed his stories, for sure when it didn’t concern her and the action only happened between the pages of a book but that was it. Just because the recent stories played ended up...well, it didn’t mean that she would trust him blindly. 

Because before reaching that fairy tale happy ending, some of the inhabitants of Storybrooke and characters of his got tortured or changed drastically over time, knowing that her story hadn’t started yet didn’t reassure her, what if she changed? What if she got kidnapped again? What if she was trapped again? It certainly felt like it. What if...what if she died?

Suspense was good in stories, it always got the reader hooked up to the story, made them turn the pages faster, but now, now that we were talking about her life, Belle started to hate it. She was scared rather than excited. Her adventurous side only wanted her to stay curled up in her blankets. The people who had lived their story during the curse had all said that they felt like they’ve just awoken from a dream or nightmare, a dream/nightmare that they had to see happen in front of them without being able to do anything. 

She clearly didn’t want to go through that. She had so much to do, so much to see!

...So much to read to. 

She shivered at the thought of herself walking like a puppet on string, now she understood why August hated to remember his wooden self. Her gaze was blank, empty, she just walked straight to the exit of Storybrooke which still gave her nightmares during some nights, just as she walked, her imagination was creating the picture of someone waiting for her at the end, that wasn’t Gold no. She was wearing her old red cloak as she smiled at her. 

Belle’s eyes widened. 

No. Nope. Definitely not. That wasn’t happening. It was impossible. Ruby was the Red Hiding Hood of her story, and the wolf too apparently, at least for Henry’s book. She had read it to see if she could help the Charming with the new curse, apart from reading nice cute stories to sleep by, she never found anything else. 

Ruby just couldn’t live more than a story, she was already filling two stories in hers, she couldn’t possibly be in another too, but then why did the rose glow? 

“ _ Some magically related objects tend to react a certain way near their owner or...the person they linked to. Sometimes they move...Sometimes they glow… _ ”

Ruby couldn’t be the owner of the rose and why would she be linked with it, other than the color red, they had nothing in common. Maybe it glowed because Ruby was her friend. Her best friend. She had been the first person to welcome her to Storybrooke, the first person to be there for her when she needed someone to listen to her, the first person to care what happened during those twenty-eight years. So, she assisted her during her transformations, making sure she had everything she needed, allowing her to use her library which again was an idea of Ruby to use during the full moon….If their first “girl’s night” didn’t go as planned, now Belle assisted Ruby with something else than chains...trust. She always made sure that Ruby had fully eaten, slept and was comfortable during the transformation, the wolf was wary at first, now….he acted like a big puppy and Belle couldn’t but chuckle whenever it sniffed her hand for a stroke. 

This surely was the reason why it glowed. She and Ruby were close. Ruby wasn’t a part of her story. Belle raised her head, looking at the flower on the cupboard. She had put it under a glass, she had no idea why, a weird feeling. The rose was glowing still but less than before. 

She couldn’t help but stare at it. She had so many questions. Would she disappear if she didn’t follow her story? It was a rumor, no one had ever seen anyone disappear but then again if they disappeared they wouldn’t be able to talk. 

That wasn’t possible, right? 

She bit her lip, inspecting it a bit better. It looked like a normal flower, pistil, stamen, petal, receptacle, thorns except for the part that it glowed it was a normal rose. Maybe it shone brighter than usual,though. 

Belle raised an eyebrow, standing up from her blanket fort to the flower. She looked at it again, analyzing every of its petal, her fingers barely brushing the glass , with each step she took, separating the flower from her, the rose glowed brighter. Why was it doing that? Why did she have that urge to take it in her hands and throw away the glass? She didn’t know why, something inside her screamt to her to take a step back but her body was acting on its own, she was like...hypnotized. 

She craned her head on a side, her hands slowly approaching the glass and putting it away, finally her hands got closer to the flower until her fingers barely brushed the petals. 

They were soft. 

And it was a bad idea. 

The rose reached its ultimatum and exploded right at her face, just as her fingers grazed the rose's thorns and someone knocked on the Library’s door. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK !   
> The chapter was already halfway done but things happenned and I couldn't work on it until now, hope you'll like it! Don't hesitate to tell me in the comments if you don't understand something or if you like it.

“Belle? Belle? It’s Ruby, open the door.”

To say that she was worried was an euphemism. Ruby had been knocking on the door for fifteen minutes straight now. She had caught a glimpse of Belle through the window when she had arrived but she hadn’t seen her properly since she had run off with the flower. It’s not like Ruby hadn’t tried to, she had, but she couldn’t exactly break into her friend’s office...So instead, she brought her food every day, Belle couldn’t do it herself and by herself, she meant cooking. 

Last time she had tried, she had almost blown off Granny’s kitchen. 

The twenty-eight years away from people hadn’t helped to improve her cooking skills. 

As usual, Ruby had brought with her a basket of all Belle’s favorites: pancakes, iced teas and so on, hoping that it would make Belle leave her hermit mode behind. She never went in, only knocked and waited. 

...And waited. 

But Belle never opened. 

She never did. Ruby should have known by now, she was always back to Granny’s for her shift, a sad look on her face. At least, she was relieved to see that her basket was empty once she was back for the next meal of the day. Belle ate, so that was that already, right? Still, Ruby couldn’t help the knot in her stomach, Belle ate but never opened. She was avoiding her. 

That was dumb, obviously, Belle wasn’t just avoiding her. She was avoiding the whole town. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel like a lost puppy. She was her best friend and even she couldn’t get her to leave her library. 

Granny had tried to cheer her up but even if she managed to get her to smile, it only lasted a couple of seconds before she was feeling miserable again. 

Ruby sighed. Belle won’t open today either. It’ s her own fault really, she didn’t want to come into Belle's library when she had never been forbidden access to, but she just...she just couldn’t bring herself to. 

She was scared. Scared that if she came in, Belle would run away, run away from her. She didn’t want her to, not when she had been the first -- apart from Granny and Snow to genuinely care for her despite her condition. 

She didn’t want to scare her best friend. 

But there was also this...weird feeling she had whenever she was around the library, she felt...strange like something was tugging on her heart, like something or someone was breathing on her neck… 

She shivered. 

No. 

She didn’t need to think of that. She was about to leave her basket to the door until a scream came from the inside of the library. 

Ruby didn’t think twice and kicked the door open. The sight in front of her was everything but what she expected. 

Belle was standing in front of her, wearing a green cloak, a basket in the arms similar to the one she had dropped at the door, staring at her confused. 

“Who are you?” she asked

Ruby blinked unsure whether she had heard the question properly or not, before she could ask Belle, someone was already answering for her. Both she and the wolf tensed, recognizing the voice it belonged to and for a good reason... It was  **_her_ ** voice. Her voice coming from her mouth or another version of herself. 

Hidden by her signature red cloak, she was a bit sweaty like she had been running for days, a part of her thought so. She and the wolf didn’t need glasses to know who it was. 

Red. 

Her past self. 

Or should she say Fairy Tale’s self? Everything was so complicated with the curse, not that it wasn’t complicated already, Henry’s family tree was just a mess to follow, it was almost as if everyone in town was related to him. Ruby stared at the past version of herself, she could see the resemblance so easily. She could read herself like an open book, see what everyone else was seeing whenever she talked to them. H...How could this happen? How could she...How could she be standing in front of herself? Why did Belle not recognize her? What was she wearing? She knew magic could do a lot of things but...she never thought… Her mind was racing, she had a thousand questions ready to leave the tip of her tongue. 

Red, on the other hand, kept making glances everywhere, visibly in a rush. 

Regina’s guards. 

Ruby didn’t know how and why she was sure Red was stressed about them, about them attacking out of nowhere. She must have been running away from them then, Ruby thought. Those men, if not magical beings, were extremely persistent, maybe out of fear of the retaliation back at the kingdom, Ruby knew how Regina could get once annoyed or frustrated, she couldn’t even imagine how frightening she must be once angry. 

Belle didn’t seem to understand what was going on, only seeming more worried with each second that passed. 

“You didn’t answer my question, who are you?”

Red seemed to consider her options before biting her lower lip. 

“...Ruby.” she finally said

The  **_actual_ ** Ruby’s eyes widened at the answer. What?! Why didn’t she say who she was? Why did she make up this name?  **_Her_ ** name? She was just about to protest when she noticed Belle’s gaze softening, that said Fake Ruby kept looking around like a fanatic. 

“A-Are you in danger?”

Fake Ruby’s eyes lowered upon Belle as if grasping her presence for the first time. 

“Yes.”

Short. Quick and simple. Belle let out a gasp.

“Who are you running from? Do you need to--”

  
She was cut short by Fake Ruby’s hand taking hers with her and leaving in Ruby’s direction who didn’t have time to put herself out of the way. It didn’t seem to matter as the two girls passed through her like some kind of a ghost, leaving Ruby with a strange and confusing feeling. Guards already at their heels, Ruby knew she should have run, she knew but couldn’t and it’s not for the lack of trying because before she could, her eyes started to close themselves and she fell asleep right on spot.

When she woke up, Snow was shaking her like crazy, cheeks wet from the tears. 

“Oh god! Oh, you’re awake! Thank you, you’re awake! She’s awake!” she blabbered before pressing Ruby in a ribs-breaking hug, soon joined by her Granny’s one.

Ruby was pretty sure that death wasn’t as painful as a hug from her granny, even if she couldn’t shift anymore, that old woman still had her super strength going. 

“Don’t you ever do that to us, young lady! You hear me Ruby? I’m too old for that crap!”

Ruby? Not Red? She tried to see where she was, and recognized the entrance hall of Belle’s library. Belle! She rushed towards the girl passed out on the floor surrounded by the dwarves, Ruby’s features twisted in pain as her muscles were still sore from sleeping for so long. However long her passing out had been. 

Belle was wearing her usual clothes, her normal ones, the ones she always wore when she went to work, that was  **_her_ ** Belle, the Belle she knew. Ruby pressed her ear to the chest of her friend, checking her heartbeat. It was still there slow and faint but it was still there. Thank god. 

She felt the body in her arms slowly moving again, as eyes did the same, tealed eyes opening on hazel ones. 

“R...Ruby?”

“The one and only.” 

She couldn’t help but joke, she had been scared to lose her for a second. Or minute. Or however long they were both gone. Belle’s eyes blinked before she smiled at her weakly. 

“Are you okay?”

“I think so...What happened.”

“I...was hoping you could tell me?”

Belle frowned, trying to gather her thoughts before looking at the flower seemingly floating in the air. Ruby followed her gaze just as her heart missed a beat. 

“Ruby?”

Ruby was too focused on something else to listen to her. One of the “walls” that kept her wolf inside had been shattered and she could swear it was the rose’s doing. She kept staring at it, almost hearing her say in her head:

_ “One wall down. Three left.” _


End file.
